Serves: 4 as a dipping sauce for asparagus
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
150g butter, melted
Freshly grated wasabi, to taste, about 4 tsp
Method:
Place the egg yolks into a large, preferably non-metallic, heatproof bowl and rest over the saucepan of water, ensuring that the base is well away from the water. A metal bowl will get very hot very quickly, increasing the chance of the sauce overheating. A thick heatproof glass bowl is ideal. Add half the lemon juice and season with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Whisk the egg for a couple of minutes over a very low heat until it starts to thicken a little. Begin to add the melted butter, literally a teaspoon at a time at first increasing to a thin trickle after the first few additions, whisking continuously. Keep adding the butter a little at a time until it is all incorporated.
To reduce the chance of the sauce splitting remove the bowl from the pan and rest on the work surface every now and then as you whisk to cool the sauce a little before returning to the heat. Once all the butter has been whisked in you should be left with a mayonnaise consistency sauce.
Taste to check the seasoning, adding a splash more lemon juice if it needs sharpening a little. Stir through freshly grated wasabi to taste, about 4 teaspoons, and serve immediately.